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Collection of Porth Caroliniana 


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THE SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI was established at the 
close of the Revolutionary War, in May, 1783, by officers of 
the American Army, just previous to its disbanding, in the 
cantonment at Newburgh, on the Hudson River. 

It was designed to be a “Society of friends, to endure as 
long as they shall endure or any of their eldest male posterity, 
and in failure thereof, the collateral branches who may be 
judged worthy of becoming its supporters and members.”’ 

It was founded on certain “immutable principles,” viz., to 
preserve inviolate the rights and liberties secured by the war, 
to promote and cherish union and national honor between 
the States, to render permanent the cordial affection subsist- 
ing among the officers, and especially to assist such officers, 
or their families, as might be in need. 

The Society was divided into Thirteen State Societies. 

All officers of the American Army, who had resigned with 
honor, after three years’ service in the capacity of officers, or 
who had been deranged by the resolutions of Congress, upon 
the several reforms of the army, or who had continued to the 
end of the war, were entitled to become parties to this institu- 
tion, on subscribing one month’s pay, and signing their names 


to the general rules in their respective State Societies; and the 
“eldest male branches’’ of such officers as had died in the 
service were also entitled to membership on the same terms 
as children of actual members. A limited number of honorary 
members might also be admitted. | 

By virtue of resolutions adopted in 1854 and 1856, each 
State Society has now the right to regulate the terms and 
qualifications for the admission of members, “‘provided, that 
admission be confined to the male descendants of original 
members (including collateral branches as contemplated by 
the original constitution); .or to the male descendants of such 
officers of the army or. navy as may have been entitled to 
admission, but who failed to avail themselves thereof, within 
the time limited by the constitution; or to the male descend- 
ants of such officers of the army or navy of the revolution 
as may have resigned with honor, or left the service with 
reputation; or to the male collateral relative of any officer 
who died in service without leaving issue.”’ 

The North Carolina Society was organized at Hills- 
borough, October 28, 1783; reorganized at Raleigh, April 4, 
1896; and incorporated by Act of the General Assembly of 
North Carolina, February 16, 1899. 


July 4th, 1900. 


The By-Laws were-amended as follows:— 


ARTICLE I. 
SECTION 3. Insert after ‘‘to audit the accounts of the Treasurer,’’ 
the following: azd to verify the securities in his charge. 
SECTION 6. Insert after subdivision (2) the following: 
(3) Election of Members. 
The present subdivision (3) becoming (4) and so forth. 


ARTICLE II. 


SECTION 4. Add to this section the following: Al/Z life and 
endowed membership fees, as well as donations, which shall be paid 
the Society, shall remain forever to the use of the Society as a perma- 
nent fund, the income only of which may be expended. 


SECTION 7. Add to this section the following: 7he Secretary 
shall be the custodian of the Seal. 


SECTION 8. Insert after ‘‘the sum of Five Dollars”’ the following: 
The fee thus paid, shall be for the use of the Soctety and be con- 
sidered a part of the revenue for the current year. 


Insert the following section, which shall be Section 9 of Article IT, 
the present Section g becoming Section Io: 


Insignia. 


SECTION 9. The Order of the Society shall be worn at all the 
meetings by the members, who may obtain it through the Treasurer. 


P 2153 4- 


BY LAWS 


OF THE 


NorTH CAROLINA SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI. 


ARTICLE 1: 
OFFICERS, COMMITTEES AND MEETINGS. 
. Officers. 


SecTION I. The Officers of the Society shall consist of a President, 
a Vice-President, a Secretary, an Assistant Secretary, a Treasurer, an 
Assistant Treasurer, who shall constitute a Standing Committee, anda 
Chaplain. 


Election and Term of Officers. 


SECTION 2. The Officers shall be chosen by ballot at the annual 
meeting, on the Fourth of July of each year, and shall hold office for the 
term of one year or until their successors are chosen. 


Duties of Officers. 


SECTION 3. The President, or in his absence, the Vice-President, 
shall preside at all meetings of the Society and of the Standing 
Committee. 

The Secretary shall keep and have charge of all the records and 
papers of the Society and of the Standing Committee. He shall call all 
meetings of the Society and Standing Committee by written notice 
within a reasonable time of the meetings of the same. The Assistant 
Secretary shall assist the Secretary in his duties and act in his absence 
or disability. 

The Treasurer shall have charge of the funds and property of the 
Society with power, on the approval of the Standing Committee, to in- 
vest and reinvest the funds and to disburse the income thereof. He shall 
give bond to the President for the faithful discharge of his trust, which 
bond must be approved by the Standing Committee. At the annual 
meeting of the Society the President shall appoint two members to 
audit the accounts of the Treasurer. The Assistant Treasurer shall 
assist the Treasurer in his duties and act in his absence or disability. 

The Chaplain shall be an ordained clergyman of a Christian church 
and shall perform all religious functions connected with the Society. 


Duties of Standing Committee. 


SecTIon 4. The Standing Committee shall have charge of the wel- 
fare and general concerns of the Society, as well as all other matters 
commiutteed to them by it. They shall hold meetings at such times as 
they shall determine. They shall consider all applications for admission 
to the Society and recommend such applicants as they deem to be en- 
titled and worthy. They shall keep a record of their proceedings, which 
shall be open to inspection by any member of the Society, and shall be 
read to the Society at its next following meeting. The assent of a 
majority of the members of the Standing Committee shall be necessary 
for any of its acts. Special meetings of the Committee may be called at 
any time by the direction of the President, and shall be called upon the 
request, in writing, of three members thereof. 


Meetings. 


cy Secrion 5. The annual meeting of the Society shall be on the 72% 
FV vor, Fotrth-of Jtty of each year, to be held in such place in the State as may 
“be determined upon by the Standing Committee. -Fhere-shattalso-be-a- 


-meeting-of the Society-on the Twenty-second-of Februaryof-each-year, 
—te-beheld-at-Ratetgh. Special meetings may be called at any time, by 
direction of the President, and such meetings shall be called upon the 
request, in writing, of ten members, stating the object of the meeting. 


Order of Business. 
Section 6. The order of business shall be as follows: 
(1) Prayer, Roll Call and Reading of the Original Institution of 
the Order. 


(2) Reading of the Minutes of the meetings of the Society and of the 
Standing Committee, since the last stated meeting of the Society. 


(3) Report of Officers and Committees. 
(4) Unfinished and New Business. 


(5) Nomination and Election of Officers and Delegates to the Gen- 
eral Society. 
(6) Adjournment. 


ARTICLE. 
MEMBERSHIP. 


Applications. 


Section 1. All applications for admission shall be in writing to the 
Standing Committee, who shall consider and report upon the same to 
the Society at its stated meetings. 


Liligibslity. 

SECTION 2. No person shall be eligible to membership who shall 
be under twenty-one years of age. Every applicant to be eligible must 
have the qualifications stated in the Institution of the Society, or under 
the Rule of 1854 adopted by the General Society. Among descendants 
of original members or others who shall be eligible, this Society reserves 
the absolute right to choose such one as seems to it best fitted to pro- 
mote the ends of the Society, but it will ordinarily be guided by the 
following principles : 


I. The succession shall descend in the eldest male line so long as it 
continues unbroken. 


II. If the eldest male line fails, the next male line shall be taken. 


III. Incaseof the failure of the maleline, the line which descended 
the greatest number of generations from the original member before a 
failure of males, shall ordinarily be taken. 


IV. The claims of descendants through female lines shall be deter- 
mined by the same rules of primogeniture as in case of claims through 
the male line, so far as applicable. 


V. A waiver by any person shall be regarded only as the renuncia- 
ion of a claim, not as the transfer of a right. 


VI. No waiver, express or implied, shall be considered as affecting 
the rights of a minor son,—except for special reasons satisfactory to the 
Society. 


VII. Where for any reason the Society deviates from the strict 
rules in electing a member, it shall not be considered as changing per- 
manently the order of succession, but upon the death of such member, 
the old order may be restored. 


VIII. As the Society for the support of the principles to which it 
is pledged may justly require its membership to be kept full, it may upon 
satisfactory evidence that an eligible person has had knowledge of his 
claim and neglected to apply within a reasonable time,—treat it as a 
waiver of the claim. If a vacancy has existed for many years, the 
Society may admit any descendant of the original member at its 
discretion. 


Election to Membership. 


Section 3. Applicants whose cases have been favorably reported . 
upon by the Standing Committee, may be elected to membership in the 
Society at the stated meetings by ballot. 


Entrance Fees. 


SECTION 4. The amount to be contributed to the permanent fund 
of the Society, before an applicant can become a member thereof, shall 
_be as follows: 


For a membership endowed in perpetuity by an applicant whose pro- 
positus was an original member of the Society or who ‘‘Died in the 
Service,’? One Hundred and Fifty Dollars; by an applicant whose pro- 
positus comes under the ‘‘ Rule of 1854,’’ Two Hundred and Fifty 
Dollars. . 


For a life membership by an applicant whose propositus was an 
original member of the Society or who ‘‘ Died in the Service,’’ Fiity 
Dollars; by an applicant whose propositus comes under the ‘‘ Rule of 
1854,’ One Hundred Dollars. 

The payments, however, on life membership, are to be credited to- 
ward an endowed membership, the cost of which is to be debited against © 
the member on election. 


bs Honorary Members. 


SECTION 5. The admission df honorary members, for life only, 
shall be confined to those who shall be eminent lineal descendants or 
representatives of those who were distinguished by high military or 
civil virtues and services in the Revolutionary War. An honorary 
member has no title to any portion of the funds of the Society, and no 
one shall be admitted to honorary membership, except upon the recom- 
mendation of the Standing Committee. 


Declaration. 


Section 6. Members of this Society shall subscribe to the follow- 
ing declaration : 


NortH CAROLINA SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI. 


eee Re EO ir ten ee: | or ee do declare that I am 


theses! he yo ie Olle ee 2: 5 and having had the honor to 
be admitted to membership in the North Carolina Society of the Cin- 
cinnati, I do hereby most solemnly promise and engage that I will be 
guided and governed by the rules of said Society, which may have been 
or may hereafter be established, agreeably to the Institution as signed 
by the original members. 

In testimony whereof I hereunto subscribe my name and pledge my 
sacred honor. 


Done avp.te. 2 a eee on the.: 3) gee ET ie) Basia he ude 1 Oe 
Seal, 


SECTION 7. The Society shall have a Seal, two inches in diameter, 
and which shall comprise thereon the insignia of the Order, viz., An 
eagle displayed, bearing on its breast the obverse of the medal of the 
Society with the motto, Omnia religuit servare rempublicam, surround- 
ing the same; above, thirteen stars in a semicircle; beneath, on a 
scroll, the motto of the Order, Esto perpetuwa ; around the whole, the 
legend, North Carolina Society of the Cincinnati, Instituted 
MDCCLX XXIII. 


Diploma, 


SECTION 8. Every member, upon his admission to the Society, 
shall be entitled to receive a diploma to be signed by the President of 
the Society and countersigned by the Secretary, for which diploma he 
shall pay the Treasurer the sum of Five Dollars. The form of the 
diploma shall be as follows: 

Sem SUA SIG Wil tS Liat eee chon, eee ee ke eee EAR e NUE gy 24 
is a (oran Honorary) Member of the Society of the CINCINNATI, 
instituted by the officers of the American Army at the Period of its 
Dissolution, as well to commemorate the great event which gave Inde- 
pendence to NORTH AMERICA, as for the laudable purpose of incul- 
cating the duty of laying down in Peace, Arms assumed for public 
Defence, and of uniting in Acts of brotherly Affection and Bonds of 
perpetual Friendship, the Members constituting the same. 

In Testimony whereof, I, the President of the North Carolina 


Society of the Cincinnati, have hereunto set my Hand and the Seal of the 


said Society, at Raleigh, fn the State of North Carolina, this 


oe Ca ic a ee ae in the Year of our Lord, One 
este ee Hi@peced.. anceeweet c epee ee 
Mepreremeterriundted and... Je. eke Year 
of the Independence of the United States. 
By order, 
SEAL. 

been 4 Y Secretary. Se ee eae ees President. 

Amendments. 


SECTION 9. These By-Laws may be altered or amended at any 
meeting of the Society ; the call for which shall state the substance of 
the alterations or amendments proposed. 


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